Home Ownership

Hurricane Recovery: Dangerous Generators

Mark Treadwell — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 18:10:00 GMT

In this post from last year, I stated that you could safely backfeed your house from a generator if you did it correctly, but that doing so incorrectly was dangerous -- dangerous as in someone being dead. It seems that the latest victim is a Georgia electric utility worker who was apparently electrocuted by a generator which was improperly connected.

This is tragic and need not have happened. I want to restate a caution that I said last September: you need to know what you are doing with your home electrical system when you backfeed. Do not attempt to backfeed your home in ignorance.

Apparently, someone expressed their electrical ignorance. Now, someone else is apparently dead for it. The local police chief may not refer criminal charges, but I think the dead man's family may have a civil case.

Small generator carbon monoxide has killed at least one in Florida in Dennis' aftermath.

However you manage it, dead is still dead, and, Darwinism aside, your family has to endure your loss. Do not add to the statistics.

Update: I guess the carbon monoxide danger is even worse than the electrical danger based on this article. Eight people have died within the past 12 months in Florida due to stupid generator use. Get a strong chain, a good lock, and build an enclosure ahead of time to keep it dry.

Hurricane Preparations: Get in Line for Installed Shutters

Mark Treadwell — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:14:00 GMT

The more I read, the happier I am with my choice to install my own hurricane shutters.

This article describes the problems people are having trying to get a contractor to do the installation. Once you get past the rip-off artists, it will take time just to get the materials. I know, since I had an eight-week wait for my aluminum panels. With the materials available, you need to get the contractor to do the install. The guy I bought my panels from was scheduled through the end of the year, and that was back in April.

I am beginning to believe that my removable footer design was a good idea. The article describes how people are stealing panels. I can see other pieces of a shutter system will follow as thieves go for either the aluminum itself or its resale value.

This will affect everyone in the country since the shutter manufacturers are here in Florida and we are sucking up most of the supply. If you want hurricane shutters, order now and be prepared to wait for them to be installed for the 2006 hurricane season.

Hurricane Preparations: Avoiding Death

Mark Treadwell — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 18:53:00 GMT

My weekends at home are fairly predictable. I spend the mornings coding the EDR, the afternoons doing house or yard work, and the evenings with the family and again with the EDR. Very predictable.

This past weekend also had me perched near the top of a 14-foot ladder drilling into my pre-cast concrete window headers to fasten my hurricane shutter tracks. Ladder work is dangerous itself, but trying to hold up a 12-foot-long aluminum storm panel header track, getting it aligned and the Tapcons fastened was a challenge, especially since there is only one of me. I put my solution at the end of my post on hurricane panel installation tips, but in short it involved the use of my ladder, a 10-foot 2x2 and a washcloth. I also took my time, since rushing seemed to be hazardous.

A co-worker fell off a ladder several years ago and severely damaged himself. This may be one of the greatest hazards while preparing for hurricanes here in Florida. I believe that more people died last year from falls after the storms were over (like falls from ladders, roofs and trees) than from any direct storm-related collapse or flooding. I believe idiotic use of chainsaws was a close second.

As I was carrying around storm panels and track on Sunday, I noticed the thunderstorms passing in the distance. It was no great leap to realize that carrying long metal things and waving them around was probably not a good idea with lightning in the area.

I also managed to get a nice burn from a hot drill bit tip. Drills can get very hot when you are making holes in concrete.

Hurricane Preparations: Aluminum Storm Panels

Mark Treadwell — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 14:51:00 GMT

We are now the proud owners of several hundred pounds of oily aluminum. I picked up our hurricane panel order yesterday. I placed the order eight weeks ago with Hurricane Depot and picked it up here in the Orlando area at a local distribution point (Lake Mary) of their manufacturer Town and Country Industries. The shutters were very fresh from the manufacturing process and still had their sheen of oil from going through the roll forming process.

This is a set of custom-cut panels. I measured our windows and determined the panel length, number of panels, length of track, etc. myself. The Hurricane Depot also has an online web estimator to simplify the process. One downside of the estimator page is that it will not calculate half panels. For our house, four windows needed them to prevent excessive overlap. Eventually, I will post the Excel spreadsheet I used.

To protect our most vulnerable windows, it will take over 300 linear feet of shutters and over 100 linear feet of track. I describe the mounting system I chose below, but you basically have two options to attach metal storm panels to a house.

Direct: With this method, the panels are usually attached horizontally and fastened with PanelMate fasteners. The PanelMates are permanently attached to the house and the panels are attached to the fasteners using washered wingnuts. This method works best with recessed windows that have a frame around them that permit attachment of the PanelMate fasteners. If you use stock length panels, it may be difficult to use this method because of a lack of structural support in the wall at the points where the shutters have holes. You will need to figure everything out and drill holes and install PanelMates. This process can be cumbersome and difficult while holding up the shutters. Good luck.
Track: With this method, tracks are attached to the house, usually at the top and bottom of the window, and the panels are attached to the tracks. There are numerous ways to build the track assemblies and several forms of track that are approved. Track also lets you do build-outs that offset the track out from the side of the house.

Build-outs are important for two reasons. The first is that you can install the shutters over window features that project out from the side of the house. The second is that it gives you separation between the panel and the window glass. Every certified shutter has a table that specifies the minimum separation distance from the glass. Mine is 3 inches, which will be achieved using the window inset in the wall. Along the coast, the minimum separation distance can be up to 5 inches. The separation gives the shutter room to flex during an impact without breaking the window glass while it is under wind pressure loading at the same time. Per the installation diagrams (see the NOA link below), I will be using the “wall mount“ technique. This technique implies that no build-out is required.

The thickness of the shutters is also important since it is directly related to strength. For most of inland Florida, building codes call for 0.040-inch thick aluminum. This is what you will find at Lowe’s. Unfortunately, Miami-Dade County code requirements require a minimum thickness of 0.050-inches, mostly based on empirical impact testing. This can be significant because insurance companies will give you a discount on your house insurance policy only if you have Miami-Dade certified shutters. This certification is their reassurance that the panels are structurally sound. The thickest aluminum shutters I have seen are 0.063-inches. These would be used along the coasts in the highest wind regions.

What is the difference between aluminum and steel shutters? Primarily, it is weight and cost. Steel is thinner and heavier for the same amount of protection, but is less expensive. Aluminum is thicker and lighter, but costs more. You have to make that decision. I went with aluminum because I have some long 98-inch panels to cover a big window on the back of my house. Lifting those up in the air will be easier with aluminum panels.

Approved shutters have a fastener schedule that specifies the maximum distance between fasteners to keep the track and shutters attached to the house under the design loads. Mine is 14 inches, so I will be using fasteners every 12 inches for ease of installation. The maximum distance depends on your local design wind load, the type of fastener, and the house material you are fastening into. The plans should also specify a minimum embedment distance into the house structure. This embedment requirement plus any nonstructural house elements (stucco, wall board, fascia, etc.) plus the external track construction will give you the minimum fastener length you will need. The installation diagram will also specify a minimum edge distance. This is a no-closer-than distance to ensure there is enough structural material around the fastener to hold it securely.

For our header installation, I will be installing h-header tracks along the tops of the windows. This is the most common header installation and will make installation quick and easy. I will attach the header tracks using white 2-1/2-inch Tapcon fasteners at 12-inch intervals. This will make the installation permanent. I am toying with the idea of caulking along the edges as well to make the headers water tight as well. That will keep everything on the outside of the shutters and give it a lesser chance of getting into the wall.

For our footer installation, I will be installing studded angle tracks along the bottoms of the windows. These 2-inch aluminum angle tracks have stainless steel studs at 12-inch intervals. I will be installing fasteners in the middle between each pair of studs. I will be complicating this installation a bit. Since the studded angle tracks are somewhat unsightly, I will be making them removable through the use of lead anchors instead of Tapcons. I will then fasten the track to the wall using stainless steel machine screws commonly called sidewalk bolts. This will let me remove the lower tracks and store them when they are not needed. I will place the sidewalk bolts in the empty holes to keep them clean while not in use.

To install the panels, I will slide the tops into the upper channel and position the bottoms over the lower studs. Each panel has holes for the studs. You then fasten the panel to the track using stainless steel washered wingnuts. There is a special drill bit for tightening these wingnuts quickly and easily with a battery-powered drill.

Panel and track storage is something I will have to work out.

Several weeks ago, I got permission from my homeowners association for the installation. I specified in my request that I would be painting the tracks and the sidewalk bolts to match the color of the house as appropriate. You may also need to pull a county construction permit as well.

How do you find out what installation details apply to you? The easiest method is to read through the manufacturer’s Miami-Dade County Building Code Compliance Office Notice of Acceptance available from the county’s web site. The NOA for my shutters is here (PDF). Alternatively, you hire a contractor to install them and they will determine all the details. For that easy installation, you just need to spend lots of extra money and wait many months. I estimate I will be saving around $2000 by doing this myself. Your results may vary. I will be installing panels on my ten most-vulnerable windows this weekend. I will blog on the tools I use and my lessons learned as I go.

Of course, now that we have the shutters, our house will never be in the path of a hurricane ever again! (Yea, right.)

Hurricane Preparations: Scaring People into Getting Ready

Mark Treadwell — Sun, 29 May 2005 13:59:00 GMT

The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required) has started their campaign to ensure that everyone in the Orlando region is sufficiently ~~paranoid~~ prepared. This morning's front page story Hurricane Season 2005: Hoping for the best includes the following boxed quote.

Now from June 1st right through November, there's this pit in your stomach. I've already got it. First clap of thunder, I start freaking out. I start pacing and trembling.

The poor woman. She is scared of thunderstorms. Since central Florida gets more of those than anywhere else (and the accompanying lightning), the family made a really poor choice of cities to live in. Several days ago, they ran another story about how the Orlando storm risk was higher. It was 2% higher, but that is still higher. They also posted some regional stories.

Happily, they also include an article today about a homeowner (an insurance adjuster) who is putting up aluminum hurricane panels. The best thing about the article is that it should get people preparing now for the storms that will come. He is using a horizontal direct-attach method using PanelMate fasteners. That is certainly sufficient if you can stand the sight of the PanelMate fasteners sticking out of your window frames.

My aluminum hurricane panels should be here in a week or two They are a custom-fit set ordered seven weeks ago. I am going with a vertical panel alignment with header and footer tracks. The header track will be permanently installed using Tapcon fasteners. The footer tracks will be removable using lead machine screw anchors and sidewalk bolts. They quoted me 6-8 weeks delivery for just the materials. Contractor installation will be available some time next winter, since everyone is booked solid through the summer. I decided to pass on that and do it myself to save the money and the time. I pity the people who get their new shutters a week after a storm hits.

Catching Up / Hurricane Preps Continue

Mark Treadwell — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 16:14:00 GMT

Posting has been slow recently because of work in the real world and a family trip. When you travel over 2700 miles in a vehicle with two small children (aged 20 months and 3 months) you need to take some time to recover. Other than unpacking, truck cleaning and yard work, there has been little free time. There is still some work I need to do on the EDR and, of course, the Honey Do list.

I did manage to get an order in to a reseller of hurricane panels two weeks ago to protect my most vulnerable windows. I will post more details later, but I decided to go with Miami-Dade certified panels. These are 0.050-inch thick corrugated aluminum. I will be installing the mounting hardware myself. This will save me several thousands of dollars for a contractor. I will be following the approved plans for installation, especially the fastener schedules, to ensure the new panels stay firmly attached to the house. This offers the additional advantage of a house insurance discount if I cover all windows and openings.

~~I may also be testing another type of panel made from plastic similar to~~ ~~Coroplast. This will depend on getting a sample from the distributor/manufacturer. We will see.~~ Looks like there will be no samples.

There are 37 days until the North Atlantic hurricane season starts.

Hurricane Preparations: Stucco Cracks and Holes

Mark Treadwell — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 03:47:00 GMT

Added Update 2.

Stucco is concrete. Concrete is brittle. Brittle materials crack. Therefore, stucco cracks. Boy, do I know stucco gets cracks. I just spent many hours sealing cracks on the outside of my house. Since a crack is also a hole, it lets in water and bugs.

Paint is very important when you have a concrete house. A number of houses built by Ryland Homes leaked during last year's storms. Much of the leakage was directly through the concrete walls due a failure of the paint system. (There were also many window and caulk problems as well.) Stucco requires primer as a sealer and an acrylic topcoat for water resistance. That is why stucco cracks are significant -- they break the paint and allow water through. People who got irate at Ryland started several websites (such as this one) to document their problems. You can see the scope of the problems via this Google search. Update 2: The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required) has a follow-up article on the response of regional builders to last year's leaks here.

Here are some items to consider when patching stucco cracks.

Use the right material - I used Kover Krack elastomeric patching material. I got it at Color Wheel for less than $3 a tube. I used a full tube when patching my house. It comes in several types: gun grade (what I used), brush grade and knife grade. Each of those comes in smooth and textured versions. The textured version has embedded vermiculite to coarsen up its appearance. The gun grade comes in standard caulk tubes and is the right amount for a homeowner who patches once or twice a year. The other grades come in larger quantities which may be too much for non-professionals. Do not use putty or caulk since they do not have the same qualities as elastomeric.

Have the right light - Search for cracks in the shade or on a cloudy day. Direct sunlight makes cracks very hard to see.

There is no such thing as a short crack - Look hard. Zigzag shapes are common if stucco is applied over block. It may be faint, but cracks frequently connect and need not follow straight lines.

Make several passes - Walk around the house several times while patching, preferably under different lighting conditions. If it has just rained, or if you wet the walls, cracks may be easier to see due to the water seeping back out of the crack. Mark them with a carpenter's pencil. Do not worry about the marks since you will be painting anyway.

Be generous but not overly so - Ensure you get the patching material into the crack or hole. Spread it wide enough to ensure good adhesion to surrounding surfaces. Do not put on so much that you radically change the texture of the wall. If you do, you almost guarantee that you will see the patch after you paint.

Technique - I started out using the material like caulk, ending up with thin lines. It took a long time. I sped up with experience. Due to delays, the tube tip hardened up and I blew the material back into my caulking gun. I ended up cutting open the side of the tube and using my fingers to apply it. Next time, I will use a short-bristled brush.

Note: I have added a Hurricane category to collect all these tidbits in one place.

Update 1: After drying for several days, I painted the Kover Krack material. I had no problems. After being on the road for several weeks, I examined my hurried paint job and determined that a second coat is really needed since coverage was not very good. This may be my fault since I was trying to put on a relatively thin coat of paint instead of gobbing it on. I will be curious to see how obvious the patched areas are after the second coat. Right now the patches or visible but not glaringly obvious.

Home Depot Self-checkout Fails To Impress

Mark Treadwell — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 01:31:00 GMT

Actually, it was an implementation of technology that just got me extremely irate. I was so upset that I just left my purchases there and went over to the nearby Lowe's ... but I am getting ahead of myself.

There are plenty of other people just like me who are unimpressed with this technology, so I am not substantially advancing the discussion here. (I do hope I end up feeling better, though.) Try this Google search, or this one to see what I mean.

I was attempting to purchase six things: a bag of washers, a bag of bolts, a bag of nuts, a drill set, and two rolls of radiant barrier insulation.

- The machine design failed to pass real-world use requirements. The scale monitoring the drop area assumes the article you purchase will fall to the bottom of the bag and rest on the scale. Tell that to a small plastic bag of stainless steel washers. Since the machine is programmed to assume you are attempting to steal things (wait, didn't you just scan an item to pay for it?), the process halts until you do what it wants. Do anything else and it locks up. It would be better to measure the weight including the bag rack.

- After locking up the first of their four machines, I carried my items over to another while the red light flashed behind me. I muttered cuss words while looking at the clerk who seemed more concerned with her nails. This time I started by scanning a package of drills. That worked. The next item was the bolts. Since they fell to the bottom of the bag, the system worked. The nuts worked as well. I felt good that I was on a roll. Things fell apart again over the washers since their minuscule weight failed to register on the scale. The machine complained. I tried to shift the washers, but the machine still complained and locked up. Now I had two flashing red lights.

- I move to the third machine and tried again, this time starting with a roll of insulation. I placed the roll in the oversize drop area and was marginally successful. When the second one did not appear in the drop area fast enough (round things are hard to control), the system complained and eventually locked up.

- It was evident that the store did not place their best checkout clerk to monitor the self-checkout area. The clerk was unable to reset the three machines. She also did not help until I was in the process of locking up the third machine.

I then left my $60 purchase behind to go to Lowe's where I happily got my stuff quickly and easily. My experiences with the Wal-Mart self-checkout have been similar, so I am convinced that this is technology that is not ready for prime time. From now on, I go with the humans.

Hurricane Duration

Mark Treadwell — Mon, 04 Oct 2004 23:51:00 GMT

I can see among my referrals that quite a few people are looking for the duration of a hurricane. As with anything, the answer is "it depends." It depends on what you are measuring and where you are. You can measure the duration of a tropical cyclone based on time elapsed of hurricane force winds, tropical storm force or greater winds or any number of other measures.

The ultimate data repository is at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, National Centers for Environmental Prediction, National Hurricane Center, Tropical Prediction Center's 2004 Tropical Cyclone Archive. This archive will provide you with all the raw data and historical analysis you could ever need.

The Weather Underground also offers a 2004 hurricane archive. They offer graphical plots of the storm tracks. You get an estimate of the duration and intensity at any point based on the color code of the track (intensity) and the location of the white squares showing the storm center at 00Z (duration).

For Orlando, Charley was the shortest (6-8 hours), but the most intense. Frances was the longest (almost 24 hours), but the weakest. Jeanne was in the middle for duration (about 16 hours), and between the first two in intensity. (These are my time estimates of the tropical storm force winds.)

You know you live in Florida when...

Mark Treadwell — Sat, 02 Oct 2004 17:21:00 GMT

Those crazy people at the Orlando Sentinel (subscription required) have been at it again. I think they need to go bake on a beach for a week or two. You just gotta keep laughing. Of course, they also claim that this was a "once in a lifetime" kind of hurricane year. Yeah right - until next year.

- - - - -

Whether natives or newcomers, residents of the Sunshine State (Ha!) have faced a multitude of, er, weather challenges the past two months. Yet, Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne have made us get a bit philosophical here at the Sentinel's Institute of Cloud Tops, Convection and Shear Madness. We therefore present the results of a comprehensive study into what really makes Florida -- and Floridians -- so special.

You know you live in Florida when . . .

You spend more time on your roof than in your living room.
Your kids start school in August and finish in July.
You know the plot to Groundhog Day and haven't even seen the movie.
There's a "No Wake" sign posted at the end of your driveway.
Having a tree in the living room does not necessarily mean it's Christmas.
You consider plywood a window treatment.
You know which weathercasters are pregnant.
The term "huge fan" has nothing to do with sports.
You won't trade cars until you've tried to guess which tree to park your lemon under for the next hurricane.
You've been laughed at over the phone by a roofer, fence builder or tree-service worker.
You actually like talking to your insurance agent.
Toilet paper is elevated to coin of the realm at shelters.
Your swimming pool experiences tides.
A hurricane with wind hits you harder than a hurricane with alcohol.
You know the difference between the "good side" of a storm and the "bad side."
Suspended tolls are a highlight of your life.
A battery-powered TV is considered an entertainment center.
Your 5-year-old knows the difference between a Category 2 and Category 3 storm.
You find the hum of a generator erotic.
You can't swim because your pool is full of patio furniture.
You actually have seen pigs fly.
You own seven or more of the following: a generator, a power inverter, a weather radio, a battery-powered TV, a battery-powered fan, battery-powered lanterns, a 5-gallon gasoline can, several tarps, a chain saw, a pole saw and a rain suit.
Your parrot can say "Hunker down."
You don't worry about relatives wanting to visit during the summer.
You miss the days when the only topics that put Florida in the national news were flawed elections and drug kingpins.
Your children associate huffing and puffing to blow a house down not with a Big Bad Wolf, but with a hurricane.
You know exactly how long two bags of ice will last in your cooler.
You go to work early and stay late just to enjoy the air conditioning.
Your hurricane parties keep getting canceled because of hurricanes.
Even as an adult, sundown means time for bed.